In Colossians 1:1 Paul wrote that he was an apostle “by the will of God.” This is an extremely important assertion. He had not taken this mantle upon himself; God had purposed and given it to him. It should be the goal for each of us to be able to say the same thing about ourselves, and our place of service.

It is one thing to do everything you can humanly do to find a “job” or a place of ministry. It is quite another to allow God to place you where He wills. As human beings, we can work and scheme and manipulate and serve where we want — but do we end up with the confidence that Paul had: that our position and service have been divinely arranged?

Can you say confidently of what you are doing now, that it is “by the will of God”? Is your work, and your ministry, just what God intended for you from before the foundation of the world? Or have you settled for much less? Ask God for His direction for your life, so that you may be able to say with the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:1, that what you are doing with your life is “by the will of God.”